Voice commands for online social networking systems

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving from a first user a voice message comprising one or more commands, receiving location information associated with the first user, identifying edges and nodes in the social graph based on the location information, where each of the identified edges and nodes corresponds to at least one of the commands of the voice message, and generating new nodes or edges in the social graph based on the identified nodes or identified edges.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to performing actions on an onlinesocial network using audio inputs.

BACKGROUND

A social-networking system, which may include a social-networkingwebsite, may enable its users (such as persons or organizations) tointeract with it and with each other through it. The social-networkingsystem may, with input from a user, create and store in thesocial-networking system a user profile associated with the user. Theuser profile may include demographic information, communication-channelinformation, and information on personal interests of the user. Thesocial-networking system may also, with input from a user, create andstore a record of relationships of the user with other users of thesocial-networking system, as well as provide services (e.g. wall posts,photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, or advertisements)to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social-networking system may transmit over one or more networkscontent or messages related to its services to a mobile or othercomputing device of a user. A user may also install softwareapplications on a mobile or other computing device of the user foraccessing a user profile of the user and other data within thesocial-networking system. The social-networking system may generate apersonalized set of content objects to display to a user, such as anewsfeed of aggregated stories of other users connected to the user.

A mobile computing device—such as a smartphone, tablet computer, orlaptop computer—may include functionality for determining its location,direction, or orientation, such as a GPS receiver, compass, orgyroscope. Such a device may also include functionality for wirelesscommunication, such as BLUETOOTH communication, near-field communication(NFC), or infrared (IR) communication or communication with a wirelesslocal area networks (WLANs) or cellular-telephone network. Such a devicemay also include one or more cameras, scanners, touchscreens,microphones, or speakers. Mobile computing devices may also executesoftware applications, such as games, web browsers, or social-networkingapplications. With social-networking applications, users may connect,communicate, and share information with other users in their socialnetworks.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

In particular embodiments, a user of an online social network may usetheir mobile computing device to take particular actions on the onlinesocial network. An online social network includes a social graph thatconsists of particular types of nodes and edges. Because there areparticular types of nodes and edges, simple and intuitive voice commandsmay be used to modify the social graph. For example, voice commands maybe used to cause the social-networking system to create new nodes in thesocial graph or to create new edges connecting particular nodes.Furthermore, location information provided by the mobile computingdevice may be used to help parse a voice command to identify theappropriate action to perform on the social graph and the particularsocial-graph elements on which to perform the action. Thus, a user coulduse their mobile computing device to, for example, “check-in” to theircurrent location, “friend” other users that are nearby, or performsimilar actions on the online social network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment associated with asocial-networking system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example social graph.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for managing voice commands on anonline social network.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 associated with asocial-networking system. Network environment 100 includes a clientsystem 130, a social-networking system 160, and a third-party system 170connected to each other by a network 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates aparticular arrangement of client system 130, social-networking system160, third-party system 170, and network 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable arrangement of client system 130,social-networking system 160, third-party system 170, and network 110.As an example and not by way of limitation, two or more of client system130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system 170 may beconnected to each other directly, bypassing network 110. As anotherexample, two or more of client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 may be physically or logically co-locatedwith each other in whole or in part. Moreover, although FIG. 1illustrates a particular number of client systems 130, social-networkingsystems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable number of client systems 130,social-networking systems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks110. As an example and not by way of limitation, network environment 100may include multiple client system 130, social-networking systems 160,third-party systems 170, and networks 110.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 110. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 110 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 110 may include one or more networks110.

Links 150 may connect client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 to communication network 110 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 150. Inparticular embodiments, one or more links 150 include one or morewireline (such as for example Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data OverCable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)), wireless (such as forexample Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), or optical (such as for example Synchronous Optical Network(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particularembodiments, one or more links 150 each include an ad hoc network, anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, aportion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a cellulartechnology-based network, a satellite communications technology-basednetwork, another link 150, or a combination of two or more such links150. Links 150 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 100. One or more first links 150 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 150.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may be an electronic deviceincluding hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientsystem 130. As an example and not by way of limitation, a client system130 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer, notebookor laptop computer, netbook, a tablet computer, e-book reader, GPSdevice, camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld electronicdevice, cellular telephone, smartphone, other suitable electronicdevice, or any suitable combination thereof. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable client systems 130. A client system 130 mayenable a network user at client system 130 to access network 110. Aclient system 130 may enable its user to communicate with other users atother client systems 130.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include a web browser132, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLAFIREFOX, and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or otherextensions, such as TOOLBAR or YAHOO TOOLBAR. A user at client system130 may enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other addressdirecting the web browser 132 to a particular server (such as server162, or a server associated with a third-party system 170), and the webbrowser 132 may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requestand communicate the HTTP request to server. The server may accept theHTTP request and communicate to client system 130 one or more Hyper TextMarkup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTP request. Clientsystem 130 may render a webpage based on the HTML files from the serverfor presentation to the user. This disclosure contemplates any suitablewebpage files. As an example and not by way of limitation, webpages mayrender from HTML files, Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML)files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML) files, according toparticular needs. Such pages may also execute scripts such as, forexample and without limitation, those written in JAVASCRIPT, JAVA,MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT, combinations of markup language and scripts suchas AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and the like. Herein,reference to a webpage encompasses one or more corresponding webpagefiles (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa,where appropriate. Although this disclosure described accessing thesocial-networking system 160 and other systems in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates accessing the social-networking system 160or other systems in any suitable manner. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a dedicated client application may be used to access thesocial-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include an audio input134, such as a microphone, that is operable to receive and/or recordvoice messages or other audio data. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user of the client system 130 may make speak a voicemessage into an audio input 134, which may be converted into anelectronic signal and processed by an audio adapter of the client system130, allowing the voice message to be further analyzed or processed bythe client system 130. Audio data received by the audio input 134 may betransmitted to a social-networking system 160, a third-party system 170,or another suitable system in any suitable manner. As an example and notby way of limitation, audio data may be transmitted via a web browser132. As another example and not by way of limitation, audio data may betransmitted via a dedicated client application. Although this disclosuredescribes receiving particular audio data in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates receiving any suitable audio data in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Social-networking system 160 may generate, store, receive, andtransmit social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profiledata, concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitabledata related to the online social network. Social-networking system 160may be accessed by the other components of network environment 100either directly or via network 110. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more servers 162. Eachserver 162 may be a unitary server or a distributed server spanningmultiple computers or multiple datacenters. Servers 162 may be ofvarious types, such as, for example and without limitation, web server,news server, mail server, message server, advertising server, fileserver, application server, exchange server, database server, proxyserver, another server suitable for performing functions or processesdescribed herein, or any combination thereof. In particular embodiments,each server 162 may include hardware, software, or embedded logiccomponents or a combination of two or more such components for carryingout the appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by server162. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 164 may includeone or more data stores 164. Data stores 164 may be used to storevarious types of information. In particular embodiments, the informationstored in data stores 164 may be organized according to specific datastructures. In particular embodiments, each data store 164 may be arelational, columnar, correlation, or other suitable database. Althoughthis disclosure describes or illustrates particular types of databases,this disclosure contemplates any suitable types of databases. Particularembodiments may provide interfaces that enable a client system 130, asocial-networking system 160, or a third-party system 170 to manage,retrieve, modify, add, or delete, the information stored in data store164.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may store one ormore social graphs in one or more data stores 164. In particularembodiments, a social graph may include multiple nodes—which may includemultiple user nodes (each corresponding to a particular user) ormultiple concept nodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—andmultiple edges connecting the nodes. Social-networking system 160 mayprovide users of the online social network the ability to communicateand interact with other users. In particular embodiments, users may jointhe online social network via social-networking system 160 and then addconnections (i.e., relationships) to a number of other users ofsocial-networking system 160 whom they want to be connected to. Herein,the term “friend” may refer to any other user of social-networkingsystem 160 with whom a user has formed a connection, association, orrelationship via social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provideusers with the ability to take actions on various types of items orobjects, supported by social-networking system 160. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the items and objects may include groups orsocial networks to which users of social-networking system 160 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use, transactions that allowusers to buy or sell items via the service, interactions withadvertisements that a user may perform, or other suitable items orobjects. A user may interact with anything that is capable of beingrepresented in social-networking system 160 or by an external system ofthird-party system 170, which is separate from social-networking system160 and coupled to social-networking system 160 via a network 110.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be capableof linking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may enable users to interactwith each other as well as receive content from third-party systems 170or other entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 170 may beoperated by a different entity from an entity operatingsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, however,social-networking system 160 and third-party systems 170 may operate inconjunction with each other to provide social-networking services tousers of social-networking system 160 or third-party systems 170. Inthis sense, social-networking system 160 may provide a platform, orbackbone, which other systems, such as third-party systems 170, may useto provide social-networking services and functionality to users acrossthe Internet.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to a client system 130. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith social-networking system 160. User-generated content may includeanything a user can add, upload, send, or “post” to social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, a usercommunicates posts to social-networking system 160 from a client system130. Posts may include data such as status updates or other textualdata, location information, photos, videos, links, music or othersimilar data or media. Content may also be added to social-networkingsystem 160 by a third-party through a “communication channel,” such as anewsfeed or stream.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may include avariety of servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and datastores. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayinclude one or more of the following: a web server, action logger,API-request server, relevance-and-ranking engine, content-objectclassifier, notification controller, action log,third-party-content-object-exposure log, inference module,authorization/privacy server, search module, ad-targeting module,user-interface module, user-profile store, connection store, third-partycontent store, or location store. Social-networking system 160 may alsoinclude suitable components such as network interfaces, securitymechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitable components,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more user-profile storesfor storing user profiles. A user profile may include, for example,biographic information, demographic information, behavioral information,social information, or other types of descriptive information, such aswork experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences, interests,affinities, or location. Interest information may include interestsrelated to one or more categories. Categories may be general orspecific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user “likes”an article about a brand of shoes the category may be the brand, or thegeneral category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connection store may beused for storing connection information about users. The connectioninformation may indicate users who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or are inany way related or share common attributes. The connection informationmay also include user-defined connections between different users andcontent (both internal and external). A web server may be used forlinking social-networking system 160 to one or more client systems 130or one or more third-party system 170 via network 110. The web servermay include a mail server or other messaging functionality for receivingand routing messages between social-networking system 160 and one ormore client systems 130. An API-request server may allow a third-partysystem 170 to access information from social-networking system 160 bycalling one or more APIs. An action logger may be used to receivecommunications from a web server about a user's actions on or offsocial-networking system 160. In conjunction with the action log, athird-party-content-object log may be maintained of user exposures tothird-party-content objects. A notification controller may provideinformation regarding content objects to a client system 130.Information may be pushed to a client system 130 as notifications, orinformation may be pulled from client system 130 responsive to a requestreceived from client system 130. Authorization servers may be used toenforce one or more privacy settings of the users of social-networkingsystem 160. A privacy setting of a user determines how particularinformation associated with a user can be shared. The authorizationserver may allow users to opt in or opt out of having their actionslogged by social-networking system 160 or shared with other systems(e.g., third-party system 170), such as, for example, by settingappropriate privacy settings. Third-party-content-object stores may beused to store content objects received from third parties, such as athird-party system 170. Location stores may be used for storing locationinformation received from client systems 130 associated with users.Ad-pricing modules may combine social information, the current time,location information, or other suitable information to provide relevantadvertisements, in the form of notifications, to a user.

FIG. 2 illustrates example social graph 200. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store one or more social graphs 200 inone or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph 200 mayinclude multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes 202 ormultiple concept nodes 204—and multiple edges 206 connecting the nodes.Example social graph 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown, for didacticpurposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation. In particularembodiments, a social-networking system 160, client system 130, orthird-party system 170 may access social graph 200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges ofsocial graph 200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to a user ofsocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g.,an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g.,of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or oversocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, when a userregisters for an account with social-networking system 160,social-networking system 160 may create a user node 202 corresponding tothe user, and store the user node 202 in one or more data stores. Usersand user nodes 202 described herein may, where appropriate, refer toregistered users and user nodes 202 associated with registered users. Inaddition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered withsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, a user node 202may be associated with information provided by a user or informationgathered by various systems, including social-networking system 160. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide his or hername, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, maritalstatus, family status, employment, education background, preferences,interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments,a user node 202 may be associated with one or more data objectscorresponding to information associated with a user. In particularembodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with social-network system 160 or a third-partywebsite associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as,for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within social-networking system 160 or on an external server,such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (suchas, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea,photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory;another suitable concept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node204 may be associated with information of a concept provided by a useror information gathered by various systems, including social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 204 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 200 may represent orbe represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profilepage”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible tosocial-networking system 160. Profile pages may also be hosted onthird-party websites associated with a third-party server 170. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a profile page corresponding to aparticular external webpage may be the particular external webpage andthe profile page may correspond to a particular concept node 204.Profile pages may be viewable by all or a selected subset of otherusers. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user node 202 mayhave a corresponding user-profile page in which the corresponding usermay add content, make declarations, or otherwise express himself orherself. As another example and not by way of limitation, a concept node204 may have a corresponding concept-profile page in which one or moreusers may add content, make declarations, or express themselves,particularly in relation to the concept corresponding to concept node204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system 170. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object(which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHPcodes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon suchas “like,” “check in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “eat”), causing a client system 130to transmit to social-networking system 160 a message indicating theuser's action. In response to the message, social-networking system 160may create an edge (e.g., an “eat” edge) between a user node 202corresponding to the user and a concept node 204 corresponding to thethird-party webpage or resource and store edge 206 in one or more datastores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 206. An edge 206 connectinga pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes.In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may include or represent one ormore data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationshipbetween a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the firstuser. In response to this indication, social-networking system 160 maytransmit a “friend request” to the second user. If the second userconfirms the “friend request,” social-networking system 160 may createan edge 206 connecting the first user's user node 202 to the seconduser's user node 202 in social graph 200 and store edge 206 associal-graph information in one or more of data stores 24. In theexample of FIG. 2, social graph 200 includes an edge 206 indicating afriend relation between user nodes 202 of user “A” and user “B” and anedge indicating a friend relation between user nodes 202 of user “C” anduser “B.” Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particularedges 206 with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes202, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with anysuitable attributes connecting user nodes 202. As an example and not byway of limitation, an edge 206 may represent a friendship, familyrelationship, business or employment relationship, fan relationship,follower relationship, visitor relationship, subscriber relationship,superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocal relationship,non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type of relationship, ortwo or more such relationships. Moreover, although this disclosuregenerally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosure alsodescribes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, references tousers or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer to thenodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected in socialgraph 200 by one or more edges 206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 206 between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 may represent a particular action or activity performedby a user associated with user node 202 toward a concept associated witha concept node 204. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 2, a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,”“listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of whichmay correspond to a edge type or subtype. A concept-profile pagecorresponding to a concept node 204 may include, for example, aselectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check in”icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a userclicks these icons, social-networking system 160 may create a “favorite”edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user's action correspondingto a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song (“Ramble On”) using aparticular application (SPOTIFY, which is an online music application).In this case, social-networking system 160 may create a “listened” edge206 and a “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between user nodes 202corresponding to the user and concept nodes 204 corresponding to thesong and application to indicate that the user listened to the song andused the application. Moreover, social-networking system 160 may createa “played” edge 206 (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between concept nodes 204corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that theparticular song was played by the particular application. In this case,“played” edge 206 corresponds to an action performed by an externalapplication (SPOTIFY) on an external audio file (the song “Imagine”).Although this disclosure describes particular edges 206 with particularattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204. Moreover,although this disclosure describes edges between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 representing a single relationship, this disclosurecontemplates edges between a user node 202 and a concept node 204representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent both that a user likes and hasused at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 206 mayrepresent each type of relationship (or multiples of a singlerelationship) between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 (asillustrated in FIG. 2 between user node 202 for user “E” and conceptnode 204 for “SPOTIFY”).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may create anedge 206 between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 in social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client system 130) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client system 130 to transmit to social-networking system 160 amessage indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, social-networkingsystem 160 may create an edge 206 between user node 202 associated withthe user and concept node 204, as illustrated by “like” edge 206 betweenthe user and concept node 204. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store an edge 206 in one or more datastores. In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may be automaticallyformed by social-networking system 160 in response to a particular useraction. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a first useruploads a picture, watches a movie, or listens to a song, an edge 206may be formed between user node 202 corresponding to the first user andconcept nodes 204 corresponding to those concepts. Although thisdisclosure describes forming particular edges 206 in particular manners,this disclosure contemplates forming any suitable edges 206 in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may usevoice commands on a mobile client system 130 to take particular actionson an online social network. Because the social graph 200 has particularnodes and edges, and types of nodes and edges, simple and intuitivevoice commands may be used to modify the social graph 200. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, voice commands may be used to cause thesocial-networking system 160 to create new concept nodes 204 or tocreate new edges 206 connecting particular nodes. Furthermore, thelocation information associated with a particular user may be used tohelp parse a voice command to identify the appropriate action to performon the social graph 200 and the particular social-graph elements onwhich to perform the action. Thus, a user could use his mobile clientsystem 130 to “check-in” to his current location, “friend” other usersthat are nearby, or perform similar actions on the online socialnetwork. In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maymodify the social graph 200 in response to voice messages and locationinformation from a mobile client system 130 associated with a user. Auser may speak into a microphone on their mobile client system 130, andsay, for example, “check in here.” The social-networking system 160 maythen receive location information from the mobile client system 130 thatindicates that the user is currently located at a particular location orevent. The social-networking system 160 may then identify a concept node204 in the social graph 200 corresponding to that particular location orevent and identify the voice command “check in” as corresponding to a“check-in” edge 206. The social-networking system 160 may then generatea “check-in” edge 206 connecting the user node 202 associated with theuser and the concept node 204 associated with the particular location orevent. Although this disclosure describes using particular methods toprocess social voice commands on an online social network, thisdisclosure contemplates using any suitable method to process socialvoice commands on the online social network.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may receivefrom a first user (corresponding to a first user node 202) a voicemessage comprising one or more commands. If mobile client system 130includes an audio input 134, the mobile client system 130 may allow auser to speak a voice message that can be received and recorded by themobile client system 130. A user may speak any suitable voice messageinto the audio input 134. In particular embodiments, the mobile clientdevice 130 may include dictation software that can convert the user'svoice into a sentence. Then, natural language processing software oranother suitable system may be used to parse the sentence into one ormore commands. In general, each command is a contiguous sequence of nitems from a given sequence of speech. The items may be characters,phonemes, syllables, letters, words, base pairs, prefixes, or otheridentifiable items from the sequence of speech. Each command may includeone or more parts from the voice message received from the first user.As an example and not by way of limitation, a first user may say “checkin here”, which may be parsed to identify the commands “check in” and“here”. This may cause the social-networking system 160 to generate a“check-in” type edge 206 connecting the first user's user node 202 tothe concept node 204 corresponding to the first user's current location(i.e., “here”). As another example and not by way of limitation, a firstuser may say “friend Steph”, which may be pared to identify the commands“friend” and “Steph”. This may cause the social-networking system 160 togenerate a “friend” type edge connecting the first user's user node 202to the user node 202 corresponding to a user named “Stephanie” who isnear the first user's current location. Other example voice messagesinclude: “like Acme”; “share with my family and work friends” aftertaking a picture with the mobile client system 130; “message Matt I'mrunning late”. Although this disclosure describes receiving particularvoice messages in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesreceiving any suitable voice messages in any suitable manner.Furthermore, although this disclosure describes particular systemsperforming particular processes, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable systems performing any suitable processes. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a user may speak into a mobile client system130, and then audio data may be transmitted to the social-networkingsystem 160, which may then process the audio data to parse the user'svoice message and to identify particular voice commands. Alternatively,these steps described above may be performed using any suitablecombination of the mobile client system 130, the social-networkingsystem 160, or another suitable system.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may receivelocation information about a user from a mobile client system 130associated with the user. Location information for the mobile clientsystem 130 may be continuously captured by the device (e.g., by specialpurpose client applications hosted on the device) and transmitted to thesocial-networking system 160. The social-networking system 160 may thenlog the location of the user after the location information is received.In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may maintaina database of information relating to various locations or events. Alocation may be general, e.g., a city, or specific, e.g., a particularstreet name, or intersection, or GPS coordinate. Specific locations mayalso include various physical venues, such as businesses, restaurants,bars, train stations, airports, theaters, parks, and the like.Similarly, a variety of events may occur at these locations. Events mayinclude concerts, movies, parties, social gatherings, conferences,business meetings, and the like. In particular embodiments, eachlocation or event may correspond to a concept node 204 in the socialgraph 200. The social-networking system 160 may allow users to accessinformation regarding each place using a client application (e.g., a webbrowser 132) hosted a client system 130. In particular embodiments, thesocial-networking system 160 may log or maintain various types oflocation information about the user. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the social-networking system may supportgeo-social-networking system functionality including one or morelocation-based services that record the user's location. Users mayaccess the geo-social-networking system using a special-purpose clientapplication hosted by a mobile client system 130 of the user (or a web-or network-based application using a web browser 132). The clientapplication may automatically access Global Positioning System (GPS) orother geo-location functions supported by the mobile client system 130and report the user's current location (or presence at an event at thatlocation) to the geo-social-networking system. In addition, the clientapplication may support geo-social networking functionality that allowsusers to check-in at various venues or events and communicate this toother users. A check-in to a given venue or event may occur when a useris physically located at the venue or event and, using a mobile device,access the geo-social-networking system to register the user's presence.A user may select a venue or event from a list of existing venues orevents near to the user's current position or create a new venue orevent. The mobile client system 130 may determine its geo-location basedon GPS signals, locations of WLAN access points, cellular signaltriangulation, or by using another suitable geo-location method. Themobile client system 130 may also indicate that a user is at aparticular event or venue based on information provided at the event orvenue. As an example and not by way of limitation, event or venues mayhave unique identifiers that can be provided to the mobile client system130 (e.g., scannable QR codes, location IDs that can be entered into thedevice, etc.). In particular embodiments, location information receivedfrom multiple users may be used to determine which users are proximateto each other. Thus, the social-networking system 160 may receivelocation information indicating that a first user is proximate to asecond user. Although this disclosure describes determining particularlocation information for users in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates determining any suitable location information for users inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may determine orcalculate, for each command identified in the voice message, a scorethat the command corresponds to a social-graph element. The score maybe, for example, a confidence score, a probability, a quality, aranking, another suitable type of score, or any combination thereof. Asan example and not by way of limitation, the social-networking system160 may determine a probability score (also referred to simply as a“probability”) that the command corresponds to a social-graph element,such as a user node 202, a concept node 204, or an edge 206 of socialgraph 200. The probability score may indicate the level of similarity orrelevance between the command and a particular social-graph element.There may be many different ways to calculate the probability. Thepresent disclosure contemplates any suitable method to calculate aprobability score for a command identified in a search query. Inparticular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may determine aprobability, p, that a command identified in a voice message correspondsto a particular social-graph element. The probability, p, may becalculated as the probability of corresponding to a particularsocial-graph element, k, given a particular voice message, X. In otherwords, the probability may be calculated as p=(k|X). As an example andnot by way of limitation, a probability that a command corresponds to asocial-graph element may calculated as an probability score denoted asp_(i,j,k). The input may be a text query X=(x₁, x₂, . . . , x_(N)), anda set of classes. For each (i:j) and a class k, the social-networkingsystem 160 may compute p_(i,j,k)=p(class(x_(i,j))=k|X). In particularembodiments, the social-networking system 160 may determine theprobability that a particular command corresponds to a social-graphelement based on a language model. Any suitable probabilistic languagemodel may be used to determine the probability that a particular commandcorresponds to a particular social-graph element. As an example and notby way of limitation, the social-networking system 160 may use an n-grammodel, a segmental Markov model, a grammar-language model, anothersuitable probabilistic language model, or any combination thereof.Although this disclosure describes determining whether voice commandscorrespond to social-graph elements in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates determining whether voice commands correspond tosocial-graph elements in any suitable manner. Moreover, although thisdisclosure describes determining whether a command from a voice messagecorresponds to a social-graph element using a particular type of score,this disclosure contemplates determining whether a command correspondsto a social-graph element using any suitable type of score.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine the probability that a particular command corresponds to asocial-graph element based on the location information associated withthe first user. As an example and not by way of limitation, whendetermining a probability, p, that a command corresponds to a particularsocial-graph element, the calculation of the probability may also factorin location information. Thus, the probability of corresponding to aparticular social-graph element, k, given a particular voice message, X,and location information, L, may be calculated as p=(k|X,L). Locationinformation may be used to determine the relevance of a particularsocial-graph element to a particular user. User nodes 202 and conceptnodes 204 corresponding to users and concepts (e.g., geographicpositions, venues, events), respectively, that are proximate to thefirst user may be considered more relevant to the first user than moredistant users and concepts. As an example and not by way of limitation,the social-networking system 160 may determine that the command “here”corresponds to a venue at the geographic location reported by the user'smobile client system 130. As another example and not by way oflimitation, the social-networking system 160 may determine that thecommand “this event” corresponds to an event that the user “checked-in”to on the online social network earlier that day. As yet another exampleand not by way of limitation, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine that the command “starbucks” (which could correspond tovarious locations of the STARBUCKS coffee shop) corresponds to theSTARBUCKS coffee shop that is nearest to the first user's currentlocation. Although this disclosure describes determining whethercommands correspond to social-graph elements based on locationinformation in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatesdetermining whether commands correspond to social-graph elements basedon location information in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine the probability that a particular command corresponds to asocial-graph element based on social-graph information. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, when determining a probability, p, that acommand corresponds to a particular social-graph element, thecalculation of the probability may also factor in social-graphinformation. Thus, the probability of corresponding to a particularsocial-graph element, k, given a particular voice message, X, andsocial-graph information, G, may be calculated as p=(k|X,G).Social-graph information may be used to determine the social relevanceof a particular social-graph element to a particular user. User nodes202 and concept nodes 204 that are connected to the first user node 202directly by an edge 206 may be considered relevant to the first user.Furthermore, in particular embodiments, the closer the second node is tothe first user node, the more relevant the second node may be consideredto the first user node. That is, the fewer edges 206 separating thefirst user node 202 from a particular user node 202 or concept node 204(i.e., the fewer degrees of separation), the more relevant that usernode 202 or concept node 204 may be considered to the first user. Inparticular embodiments, the probability that a command from a voicemessage corresponds to a particular node may be based on the degree ofseparation between the user node 202 of the first user and theparticular node. A particular command may have a higher probability ofcorresponding to a social-graph element that is closer in the socialgraph 200 to the querying user (i.e., fewer degrees of separationbetween the element and the first user node 202) than a social-graphelement that is further from the user (i.e., more degrees ofseparation). As an example and not by way of limitation, if the firstuser speaks the voice message “friend jenny,” the calculated probabilitythat the command “jenny” corresponds to a second-degree user node 202(i.e., a node that is two degrees of separation from the user node 202of the first user) for a user named “Jenny” may be higher than thecalculated probability that this command corresponds to a third-degreeuser node 202 for a different user also named “Jenny.” In particularembodiments, the social-networking system 160 may only determine theprobability that a particular command corresponds to node within athreshold degree of separation of the user node 202 corresponding to thefirst user. A particular node may only be considered relevant to thefirst user if that particular node is within a threshold degree ofseparation of the user node 202 of the first user. Thus, nodes beyondthe threshold degree of separation may be assigned a zero or nullprobability of corresponding to the command. Alternatively, whenresolving voice commands, the social-networking system 160 may onlyaccess nodes within the threshold degree of separation and onlydetermine probabilities for those nodes. The threshold degree ofseparation may be, for example, one, two, three, or all. Although thisdisclosure describes determining whether commands correspond tosocial-graph elements based on social-graph information in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates determining whether commandscorrespond to social-graph elements based on social-graph information inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the probability that a command corresponds toa particular node may be based on the search history associated with thefirst user. Nodes that the first user has previously accessed, or arerelevant to the nodes the first user has previously accessed, may bemore likely to be the target of the first user's voice command. As anexample and not by way of limitation, if the first user has previouslyvisited the concept-profile page for the location “Old Pro,” then whendetermining the probability that the command “old pro” corresponds tothe concept node 204 corresponding to this page, the social-networkingsystem 160 may determine that the concept node 204 for “Old Pro” has arelatively high probability of corresponding to the command “old pro”because the first user has previously accessed that concept node 204(and may in fact already be connected to that node with a “viewed” edge206). Although this disclosure describes determining whether commandscorrespond to social-graph elements based on search history in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates determining whethercommands correspond to social-graph elements based on search history inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may identifyone or more nodes or one or more edges having a score greater than athreshold score. Each of the identified nodes or identified edges 206may correspond to at least one of the commands. As an example and not byway of limitation, the command may only be identified as correspondingto a particular social-graph element, k, if p_(i,j,k)>p_(threshold).Although this disclosure describes identifying node and edges thatcorresponding to commands in a particular manner, this disclosurecontemplates identifying edges 206 that corresponding to commands in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generateone or more new nodes or one or more new edges in the social graph 200based on the identified nodes or identified edges. In this way, varioussocial commands, such as “check-in”, “friend”, “like,” “share,”“message,” and the like may be executed and the social graph 200 may bemodified accordingly. In particular embodiments, the social-networkingsystem 160 may generate one or more new edges 206 in the social graph200 connecting the user node 202 of the first user to one or more of theidentified nodes. A user may desire to take particular social actions,such as “liking”, “checking in” or “friending” on the online socialnetwork, which indicate a particular relationship between the user andanother user or concept. The user may use particular voice commands totake these actions, which may be represented by new edges 206 in thesocial graph connecting the user node 202 of the first user to anothernode. As an example and not by way of limitation, in response to thevoice message “check in here”, which contains the commands “check in”and “here” corresponding to a “check-in” type edge 206 and a conceptnode 204 of the first user's current location, respectively, thesocial-networking system 160 may generate a new “check-in” type edge 206connecting the user node 202 of the first user to the concept node 204of the user's current location. As another example and not by way oflimitation, in response to the voice message “like this event”, whichcontains the commands “like” and “this event” corresponding to a “like”type edge 206 and a concept node 204 of an event the first user iscurrently attending (which may be determined based on his locationinformation), respectively, the social-networking system 160 maygenerate a new “like” type edge 206 connecting the user node 202 of thefirst user to the concept node 204 of the event. In particularembodiments, the social-networking system 160 may generate one or morenew nodes and one or more new edges in the social graph 200, where thenew edges 206 connect the new nodes to the user node 202 correspondingto the first user. The new nodes may correspond to content filesreceived from the mobile client system 130 of the first user, whereineach new node corresponds to a particular content file. A user maydesire to post or send photos, comments, messages, or other suitablecontent on the online social network. The user may use particular voicecommands to send or post these content files (which may be any suitablefile type), and these new content files may then be represented in thesocial graph 200 by new concept nodes 204. New profile pages may also begenerated for any new content files received. As an example and not byway of limitation, the first user may take a photo with his mobileclient system 130 and then input the voice message “post to this event'spage.” The mobile client system 130 may then parse the voice message toidentify the commands “post to”, “this event's”, and “page.” The command“post to” may correspond to a new node generated by thesocial-networking system 160 corresponding to the photo taken by thefirst user. The command “this event's” may correspond to a concept node204 for an event the first user is currently attending (which may bedetermined, for example, based on the first user's locationinformation). Thus, in response to this voice message, thesocial-networking system 160 may modify the social graph 200 bygenerating a new concept node 204 corresponding to the photo and thengenerate a new edge 206 connecting the new concept node 204 with theconcept node 204 for the event the first user is currently attending.Furthermore, the photo may then be displayed on a concept-profile pagecorresponding to the concept node 204 for the event (a newconcept-profile page may also be generated for the photo). Although thisdisclosure describes generating new nodes and new edges in the socialgraph in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates generatingnew nodes and new edges in the social graph in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may identifyprivacy setting corresponding to at least one of the commands of thevoice message. The privacy setting may indicate which second users ofthe online social network may access content files corresponding to anew node generated by the social-networking system 160, as describedpreviously. Once the privacy setting is identified, thesocial-networking system 160 may then apply the privacy setting to oneor more of the new nodes, thereby restricting access to thecorresponding content files. As an example and not by way of limitation,the first user may take a photo with his mobile client system 130 andthen input the voice message “share this photo with my friends.” Themobile client system 130 may parse the voice message to identify thecommands “share”, “this photo” and “with my friends”, where the command“this photo” corresponds to a new node generated by thesocial-networking system 160 corresponding to the photo taken by thefirst user. The command “with my friends” corresponds to a privacysetting indicating that the photo should only be viewable byfirst-degree friends of the first user (i.e., those second usersconnected by a “friend” type edge 206 to the user node 202 of the firstuser). Once the photo is posted on the online social network, thesocial-networking system 160 may then apply the privacy settings asdescribed above to the photo, allowing only the first user'sfirst-degree friends to view the photo. Although this disclosuredescribes identifying and applying privacy settings in a particularmanner, this disclosure contemplates identifying or applying privacysetting in any suitable manner.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method 300 for managing voice commands onan online social network. The method may begin at step 310, where thesocial-networking system 160 may access a social graph 200 comprising aplurality of nodes and a plurality of edges 206 connecting the nodes.The nodes may comprise a first user node 202 and a plurality of secondnodes (one or more user nodes 202, concepts nodes 204, or anycombination thereof). At step 320, the social-networking system 160 mayreceive from the first user a voice message comprising one or morecommands. At step 330, the social-networking system 160 may receivelocation information associated with the first user. At step 340, thesocial-networking system 160 may identify one or more edges or one ormore second nodes based on the location information associated with thefirst user. Each of the identified edges or identified nodes maycorrespond to at least one of the commands of the voice message. At step350, the social-networking system 160 may generate one or more new nodesor one or more new edges in the social graph based on the identifiednodes or identified edges. Particular embodiments may repeat one or moresteps of the method of FIG. 3, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates particular steps of the method ofFIG. 3 as occurring in a particular order, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable steps of the method of FIG. 3 occurring in any suitableorder. Moreover, although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular components, devices, or systems carrying out particular stepsof the method of FIG. 3, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecombination of any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying outany suitable steps of the method of FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example computer system 400. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 400 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 400 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 400 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 400.Herein, reference to a computer system may encompass a computing device,and vice versa, where appropriate. Moreover, reference to a computersystem may encompass one or more computer systems, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems400. This disclosure contemplates computer system 400 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 400 may be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip(SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, acomputer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computersystem, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, amainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a server, a tablet computer system, or acombination of two or more of these. Where appropriate, computer system400 may include one or more computer systems 400; be unitary ordistributed; span multiple locations; span multiple machines; spanmultiple data centers; or reside in a cloud, which may include one ormore cloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one ormore computer systems 400 may perform without substantial spatial ortemporal limitation one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. As an example and not by way of limitation, oneor more computer systems 400 may perform in real time or in batch modeone or more steps of one or more methods described or illustratedherein. One or more computer systems 400 may perform at different timesor at different locations one or more steps of one or more methodsdescribed or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 400 includes a processor 402,memory 404, storage 406, an input/output (I/O) interface 408, acommunication interface 410, and a bus 412. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 402 includes hardware for executinginstructions, such as those making up a computer program. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, processor 402 mayretrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internal register, aninternal cache, memory 404, or storage 406; decode and execute them; andthen write one or more results to an internal register, an internalcache, memory 404, or storage 406. In particular embodiments, processor402 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, oraddresses. This disclosure contemplates processor 402 including anysuitable number of any suitable internal caches, where appropriate. Asan example and not by way of limitation, processor 402 may include oneor more instruction caches, one or more data caches, and one or moretranslation lookaside buffers (TLBs). Instructions in the instructioncaches may be copies of instructions in memory 404 or storage 406, andthe instruction caches may speed up retrieval of those instructions byprocessor 402. Data in the data caches may be copies of data in memory404 or storage 406 for instructions executing at processor 402 tooperate on; the results of previous instructions executed at processor402 for access by subsequent instructions executing at processor 402 orfor writing to memory 404 or storage 406; or other suitable data. Thedata caches may speed up read or write operations by processor 402. TheTLBs may speed up virtual-address translation for processor 402. Inparticular embodiments, processor 402 may include one or more internalregisters for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosurecontemplates processor 402 including any suitable number of any suitableinternal registers, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 402may include one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 402. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 404 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 402 to execute or data for processor 402 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system400 may load instructions from storage 406 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 400) to memory 404. Processor 402may then load the instructions from memory 404 to an internal registeror internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 402 mayretrieve the instructions from the internal register or internal cacheand decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 402 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor402 may then write one or more of those results to memory 404. Inparticular embodiments, processor 402 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 404 (asopposed to storage 406 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in one ormore internal registers or internal caches or in memory 404 (as opposedto storage 406 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (which may eachinclude an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor 402 tomemory 404. Bus 412 may include one or more memory buses, as describedbelow. In particular embodiments, one or more memory management units(MMUs) reside between processor 402 and memory 404 and facilitateaccesses to memory 404 requested by processor 402. In particularembodiments, memory 404 includes random access memory (RAM). This RAMmay be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate, this RAMmay be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 404 may include one ormore memories 404, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular memory, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 406 includes mass storage for data orinstructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage 406may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flash memory,an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more of these. Storage406 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed) media, whereappropriate. Storage 406 may be internal or external to computer system400, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, storage 406 isnon-volatile, solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, storage 406includes read-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may bemask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM),electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM),or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. Thisdisclosure contemplates mass storage 406 taking any suitable physicalform. Storage 406 may include one or more storage control unitsfacilitating communication between processor 402 and storage 406, whereappropriate. Where appropriate, storage 406 may include one or morestorages 406. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular storage, this disclosure contemplates any suitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 408 includes hardware,software, or both, providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 400 and one or more I/O devices. Computer system400 may include one or more of these I/O devices, where appropriate. Oneor more of these I/O devices may enable communication between a personand computer system 400. As an example and not by way of limitation, anI/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone, monitor, mouse,printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet, touch screen,trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or a combination oftwo or more of these. An I/O device may include one or more sensors.This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices and any suitableI/O interfaces 408 for them. Where appropriate, I/O interface 408 mayinclude one or more device or software drivers enabling processor 402 todrive one or more of these I/O devices. I/O interface 408 may includeone or more I/O interfaces 408, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular I/O interface, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable I/O interface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 410 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 400 and one or more other computer systems 400 or one ormore networks. As an example and not by way of limitation, communicationinterface 410 may include a network interface controller (NIC) ornetwork adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-basednetwork or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter for communicatingwith a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network and any suitable communicationinterface 410 for it. As an example and not by way of limitation,computer system 400 may communicate with an ad hoc network, a personalarea network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of theInternet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portionsof one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As anexample, computer system 400 may communicate with a wireless PAN (WPAN)(such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAXnetwork, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), or other suitablewireless network or a combination of two or more of these. Computersystem 400 may include any suitable communication interface 410 for anyof these networks, where appropriate. Communication interface 410 mayinclude one or more communication interfaces 410, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particularcommunication interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecommunication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 412 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 400 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 412 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 412may include one or more buses 412, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media mayinclude one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits(ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) orapplication-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid harddrives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs),magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppydisk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs),RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitablecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitablecombination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Acomputer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile,non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, whereappropriate.

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

The scope of this disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions,variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodimentsdescribed or illustrated herein that a person having ordinary skill inthe art would comprehend. The scope of this disclosure is not limited tothe example embodiments described or illustrated herein. Moreover,although this disclosure describes and illustrates respectiveembodiments herein as including particular components, elements,functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments may includeany combination or permutation of any of the components, elements,functions, operations, or steps described or illustrated anywhere hereinthat a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend.Furthermore, reference in the appended claims to an apparatus or systemor a component of an apparatus or system being adapted to, arranged to,capable of, configured to, enabled to, operable to, or operative toperform a particular function encompasses that apparatus, system,component, whether or not it or that particular function is activated,turned on, or unlocked, as long as that apparatus, system, or componentis so adapted, arranged, capable, configured, enabled, operable, oroperative.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising, by a computing device:accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a pluralityof edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of thenodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodescomprising: a first-user node corresponding to a first user associatedwith an online social network; and a plurality of second nodes that eachcorrespond to a concept or a second user associated with the onlinesocial network, each second node being of a particular node-type;receiving from the first user a voice message comprising one or morecommands; receiving location information associated with the first user;determining one or more edge-types and one or more node-types, eachedge-type and node-type being determined based on at least one of thecommands of the voice message; identifying one or more second nodesbased on the location information associated with the first user andfurther based on at least one of the commands of the voice message, eachof the identified second nodes being one of the determined node-types;and generating one or more new edges in the social graph connecting thefirst-user node to one or more of the identified second nodes based onthe location information and the voice message, each of the new edgesbeing one of the determined edge-types.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the voice message is received via an audio input of a mobilecomputing device of associated with the first user.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the location information comprises the geographiclocation of a mobile client system associated with the first user. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprisesinformation indicating that the first user is at a particular event. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprisesinformation indicating that the first user is at a particular venue. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprisesinformation indicating that the first user is proximate to a particularsecond user.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generatingone or more new nodes in the social graph based on the locationinformation and the voice message, each of the new nodes being one ofthe determined node-types, the generated new edges connecting thegenerated new nodes to the first-user node.
 8. The method of claim 7,further comprising: receiving one or more content files associated withthe first user, wherein the one or more new nodes correspond to one ormore of the content files, respectively.
 9. The method of claim 7,further comprising: identifying a privacy setting corresponding to atleast one of the commands of the voice message, the privacy settingindicating which second users of the online social network may accesscontent files respectively corresponding to the new nodes; and applyingthe privacy setting to one or more of the new nodes.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes comprises:determining a score for each command of the voice message that thecommand corresponds to a second node; and identifying one or more secondnodes having a score greater than a threshold score, each of theidentified second nodes corresponding to at least one of the commands,and each of the identified second nodes being one of the determinednode-types.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining a scorecomprises determining a probability, for each command of the voicemessage, that the command corresponds to a second node, and wherein theprobability is determined based on a probabilistic language model. 12.The method of claim 10, wherein the voice message comprises one or morecommands for creating one or more relationships in the social graph,wherein the relationships are represented by one or more edges ofparticular edge-types.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein identifyingone or more second nodes is further based on a social relevance of theparticular second nodes.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein identifyingone or more second nodes is further based on the degree of separationbetween the first-user node and the identified second nodes.
 15. Themethod of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes isfurther based on the search history associated with the first user. 16.The method of claim 1, wherein each of the identified second nodes iswithin a threshold degree of separation from the first-user node. 17.The method of claim 16, wherein the threshold degree of separation isone, two, three, or all.
 18. One or more computer-readablenon-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable whenexecuted to: access a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and aplurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between twoof the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them,the nodes comprising: a first-user node corresponding to a first userassociated with an online social network; and a plurality of secondnodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated withthe online social network, each second node being of a particularnode-type; receive from the first user a voice message comprising one ormore commands; receive location information associated with the firstuser; determine one or more edge-types and one or more node-types, eachedge-type and node-type being determined based on at least one of thecommands of the voice message; identify one or more second nodes basedon the location information associated with the first user and furtherbased on at least one of the commands of the voice message, each of theidentified second nodes being one of the determined node-types; andgenerate one or more new edges in the social graph connecting thefirst-user node to one or more of the identified second nodes based onthe location information and the voice message, each of the new edgesbeing one of the determined edge-types.
 19. A system comprising: one ormore processors; and a memory coupled to the processors comprisinginstructions executable by the processors, the processors operable whenexecuting the instructions to: access a social graph comprising aplurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, eachof the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree ofseparation between them, the nodes comprising: a first-user nodecorresponding to a first user associated with an online social network;and a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or asecond user associated with the online social network, each second nodebeing of a particular node-type; receive from the first user a voicemessage comprising one or more commands; receive location informationassociated with the first user; determine one or more edge-types and oneor more node-types, each edge-type and node-type being determined basedon at least one of the commands of the voice message; identify one ormore second nodes based on the location information associated with thefirst user and further based on at least one of the commands of thevoice message, each of the identified second nodes being one of thedetermined node-types; and generate one or more new edges in the socialgraph connecting the first-user node to one or more of the identifiedsecond nodes based on the location information and the voice message,each of the new edges being one of the determined edge-types.